


It All Comes Back

by maxsaystowrite



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, So much angst, lunar interlude v: reunion tour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-21 00:04:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10673511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxsaystowrite/pseuds/maxsaystowrite
Summary: As Taako remembers, questions come to mind. How could you forget Lup? How will it feel to remember? How can you miss what you can't remember? How could Lucretia let you forget?





	It All Comes Back

First memories to come back were the ones of Lup. Her smile came back, first her grin that looked so much like his. Their matching grins flashing at the same time always meant trouble. 

 

Then the moments she didn't smile came back. She faded into existence, into memories that didn't have her before. She stitched her way back into his train of thought and Taako remembered that she was always right there beside him, he didn't suffer alone. 

 

Her presence hit him so hard, Taako fell to the ground, unable to hold himself up anymore. His knees collided with the ground, making his pain more physical. Taako was so far off in his memories, he almost forgot more in the world existed besides him and Lup.

 

“Lucretia how could you-? How could you make us forget her?” And then he remembered Lucretia, not the director. She was kind and quiet, always watching, and good company whenever you needed someone to sit and not talk to. Then he remembered Barry's love of Lup, his shy smiles, and Lup’s stinging jokes. He remembered how Barry would join them on their excursions, and how Taako quickly became the third wheel.

 

Taako’s hands crawled to his neck as he let out a scream, scratching his throat raw.

 

“Didn’t it hurt you too? Forgetting?” He tried to rationalize it,  tried to understand how Lucretia could do this to them, how sweet and brilliant Lucretia could do this to any of them. Then, in his mind, Lucretia and the Director became one. The timeline of the past years went from hazy to clear cut and Taako knew the woman standing before him wasn’t the Lucretia he remembered. Although she didn’t live those 20 years she lost in Wonderland,  she was certainly hardened by them.

 

“I’ve missed her,” Taako said, not thinking about the words coming out. He tried to grasp something, anything in front of him. His fingers just scraped against cold tile. “I’ve missed her so much- I could never place- I. How could I have forgotten her?”

 

Lup appeared in his memory, short and in twin braids. They were in matching dresses, it was his idea. She was grinning a gappy smile and he remembered her losing three baby teeth at once, although that wasn’t this memory.

 

_ “Let’s go digging in the mud!” _

 

_ “That’ll get our dresses dirty and make aunty mad.” _

 

_ “Exactly.” _

 

_ “Let’s do it.” _

 

Taako touched his wet cheeks. He didn’t even realize her was crying but once he did, he couldn’t even stop. The tears just fell.

 

“How many times did you look at me and almost call me Lup?” He asked. “ _ How _ did you look at me and not say a word?” Taako let out a scream from his stomach, his mind searing as if it was tearing open and heart starting to melt. “How could I let myself forget her? How could I do that to her?”

 

Lucretia cringed, pulling her staff close to her chest. Calm, composed Taako was deteriorating into a shuddering mess. His body jerked and heaved with each word that escaped him. She had never seen him this emotional, or vulnerable. She had never seen him so broken.  _ And I did this to him, _ she thought. Lucretia swallowed the guilt for only a moment before Taako’s bright, watery eyes looked up past the brim of his hat, lifting his chin only slightly.

 

“How could you do this to  _ her _ ?”

 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Taako.” She was able to choke out. “Your memory hasn’t brought it back yet, you don’t know yet, I helped you! I helped you go on living your life! You couldn’t have moved on if you remembered her!”

 

“I would have never asked for this! I would never want to  _ forget _ her! How is forgetting a part of myself helping me?”

 

Lucrecia's cheeks felt wet, her teeth gritting together as she tried to catch her fleeting breath. “It’s gonna come back Taako, and,” She hiccuped, triggering a loud sob. “And I think it’ll destroy you like it did last time, Taako, you have to know, it’s gonna be so painful.”

 

Taako jerked forward, though, he couldn’t  _ really  _ move. He was able to prop himself up on one wobbling knee, falling back on it when he tried to stand. 

 

“Just  _ tell me! _ ”

 

“I  _ can’t _ !” Without warning, a bolt of magic came from Lucrecia's hand, hitting Taako and Taako alone. He fell to the ground, Barry running over to him and checking for a pulse.

 

“He’s alive.” Relief washed over everyone.

 

“I-I just,” Lucrecia stammered. “I just wanted him to wait… That would have shattered him long before the century… Maybe he won’t dream of her.” 

 

Taako only remembered ever dreaming in abstract shapes. Blurred colors, and a fuschia sparkle, much more glamorous than the average black and white static. Loud, but perfectly pitched melodies covering clashing tones. The shapes were always alluring, Taako always wanted to go towards it, grasp it, embrace it. Taako never understood why he dreamed like this.

 

But the baby void fish cleared up his memories, and his dreams. He finally understood why his dreams were all the same, and all abstract. He was dreaming of her, he always was, she was clawing her way back into his mind.

 

Taako remembered his first spell, there was no wonder why he couldn’t before, the memory was so tightly wrapped around her.

 

_ A wolf snarled and Taako’s head snapped up. He immediate thought was  _ **_where is she?_ ** _ That was always his immediate thought when she wasn’t right beside him. The wolf snapped and Taako grabbed the first thing in his bag, running to her. _

 

_ Lup’s freshly painted nails were clawing at the bark of a tree, her back to it, too afraid to break eye contact with the wolf as it crept ever closer to her. Taako looked down in his hand; he had grabbed a wand they lifted from their last adventurer. It was too big for his hand and too powerful for his skill level. The wand pulsed with a magic he wasn’t sure he could control but with every second he hesitated, the wolf got closer to pouncing. _

 

_ “Magic Missile!” Taako cried, aiming all three streams of magic at the wolf in one large stripe. The wolf was hit, rolling over on its side, whimpering. _

 

_ Lup’s head slowly turned towards him. The terror in her eyes melted away and shining delight filled them.  _

 

_ “Wicked.” _

 

Taako felt himself smile, watching his memories pass one by one. He watched them steal Lup a wand, transmuting their hats and clothes just for fun. He watched them stash away their wands as they lived with their aunt. He watched as his aunt’s house quickly became the wrong place for them.

 

_ Lup shoved her favorite book into her adventuring kit, the one they spent the last of their gold on, stuffing down as many clothes and supplies she could have fit. Taako did the same, placing his wand on the very top. _

 

_ “I’m at least going to miss the bed,” Taako said, trying to make light of the situation. Lup shot him a look. She was definitely less content than Taako. She was itching for adventure a freedom that they just didn’t have under their aunt’s roof. _

 

_ “Stray cats never stay,” Lup said. She said that often. _

 

_ He wasn’t going to miss is his aunt, he was going to miss the anchor of the home, and the constant of the meal. Taako would miss the best parts of the mediocrity although he too felt the longing for adventure.  _

 

_ Lup climbed through the windowsill and Taako heard her land on the ground below. Taako sat on the sill for a moment, trying to memorize the closest thing he had to home. _

 

_ “Taako! Come on!” Lup called and Taako jumped, landing next to her. _

 

As his childhood strung along before his eyes, the memories got faster, their real time, their real feel distorted. Nothing he could do could slow the passage. Their times as chefs and their time at the institute flicked by without a care. There was a moment in their lost century that started to slow, it went by at only two times normal speed, and as the years closed the gap the slowed even further, until the day of. Taako knew it was the day because he knew what happened after, and he knew what happened before. On one side he was a twin, on the other, he was alone.

 

_ The day started with inky black in the sky.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it leave a comment! I have two more Adventure Zone fics set in wonderland. I also have Yuri!!! On Ice, Voltron, Miraculous Ladybug, RWBY, Gravity Falls, Star Wars, and Kingsmen fics! Go read those if you're interested! Thank you so much!


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